SDG 14 – Life below water
Spending the day on the water can go a long way to reenergize ourselves. That’s why it’s especially important that we all work together to take care of our bodies of water. Goal 14 for the UN aims at the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources. This goal also focuses on significantly reducing marine pollution from land-based activities and protecting marine and coastal ecosystems. Furthermore, fishing activities need to be more effectively regulated and illegal fishing brought to an end.
What we’re doing
What’s the best way to protect our seas? By doing all we can to protect all forms of life in the world’s seas. In our view, that starts with how we handle waste materials and remove them responsibly. This includes all hygienic and cleaning products which are all 100% microplastic free—without exception. Fishing. Fish consumption. Essential topics, especially in our neck of the woods, where the sea is quite a ways away. That’s exactly why we decided against offering salmon and other fish products on our breakfast buffet. Another major topic here is the global trade of goods, specifically container ships, which are some of the biggest environmental polluters on the planet. Each and every day, these merchant ships release hazardous materials into the air and sea by the ton. Absurd, but true, ships are loaded with seawater even if they have no cargo. The water is then transported halfway around the planet and dumped into foreign waters, thus making it a massive burden on our maritime ecosystems. One reason more that our coffee only reaches us by sail.
Implementation
SDG 14 comes to life in room 402. Here we wanted to put the importance of taking care of our seas on display. The central message is embodied by the fish behind the bed. No more plastic in the ocean. We packed up these flip flops while beach cleaning in Bali (see pictures). The two bedside lamps are fish-shaped wrought from an old metal braiding and fish trap; both hang from fishing rods. The same applies to the toilet paper. The couch was made from a boat we found in Indonesia, as is the shelf next to it.
We put everything inside the couch holder that has no business being at sea—but still is by the ton. Austrian company Elastica, who produced all of our mattresses and beds, use materials generated from recycled plastic from the sea. The mattress on our boat is of the same material and handmade. The end table beneath the TV is covered with a sail, the stool was made with books about life underwater. This is covered with a fish feed bag from Cambodia—Sissi Vogler also sews fantastic swim bags with her startup REFISHED. This one is filled with diving publications. Behind it, there is an old diving fin protecting the wall, which is reminiscent of a fishing net and calls attention to a global issue: Overfishing! The vanity mirror in the bathroom is made with a porthole, while the canister atop the toilet paper hamper resembles a buoy that is often seen floating at sea. This one is made of diving bells and rows from the Alte Donau, a former river branch of the Danube. Room 402 is one of our favourites as there is so much to see!
